Tiffany Whittier: Because of her

1923 Ku Klux Klan Rally  (Public Domain)

If you were a black probation officer being sent to the home of a neo-Nazi, would you request backup?  Tiffany Whittier didn’t.

Whittier boldly showed up alone at Michael Kent’s door.  This diehard white supremacist was “emotionally moved… by the fact that she didn’t fear him or what he represented.”  As Whittier gazed at Kent’s collection of Hitler-related items, she simply asked him why.  He replied:  This is me – take it or leave it.

Whittier did not come across judgmentally, but neither was she silent when confronted with blatant racism.  Eventually, she “half-jokingly” suggested that Kent “replace his Nazi symbols with smiley faces.”  To her astonishment, he did. 

As time passed, an “ironic” friendship developed.  Kent began exploring the roots of his prejudice.  Having grown up in “a mostly black neighborhood,” Kent had been bullied as a kid.  His mother had been “assaulted.”

Slowly the friendship with Whittier began to turn Kent’s life around.  He is now even having his Nazi tattoos removed.  Kent credits Whittier for a newfound ability to accept people as they are, saying:  Because of her, I am the man I am.

Resources

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-%e2%80%98ironic%e2%80%99-friendship-that-convinced-a-former-neo-nazi-to-erase-his-swastika-tattoos/ar-AAt16ud 

Copyright October 9, 2017 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved